"We were working on something similar for the coast (i.e. spatial planning), but these plans have been put on hold due to political reasons. That is still an important aspect of the master plan that needs to be dealt with.In Belgium, whenever there is a new development or buildings are being constructed, the Coastal Division needs to be informed. They can advise against construction or they can advise different measures but they can’t prevent anything, even when there are good reasons regarding coastal protection.
The long term vision and strategy on how to organize the coast and deal with the coastal protection will be very interesting. There are already some initiatives but the difficulty lies in bringing them all together in one plan and not spread out in different plans, which is the case right now."